


Peony Lantern

by seamayweed (night_shade)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Ghosts, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-10 21:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16462637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/night_shade/pseuds/seamayweed
Summary: The wind howled and a very thin slip of paper got snagged under Sasuke’s sandal. Bending down he picked it up. It looked tattered and the color was faded, but Sasuke was fairly sure it had been yellow once and the inscription had been painted red.“What month is it?” Sasuke said, still holding the paper.“What?” Suigetsu asked, brows furrowing. “What’s that got to do with anything?”“It’s August,” Karin said in sudden realization.Juugo nodded. “The month of the ghosts.”





	Peony Lantern

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween! Hope you enjoy my spookyfic. :D

They were hot on the heels of the Akatsuki when they stopped at a remote village on the outskirts of Grass. It was only evening and the streets were empty, as though abandoned.

Karin shivered, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “Hey, don’t you think this town is creepy? I say we look for another or camp out in the forest.”

Sasuke shook his head. “It’s too late for that. And there is no sense in looking for lodgings elsewhere when we could sleep here, in beds. We need to rest when we can if we want to be in our best shapes.” But he did narrow his eyes. The eerie silence was indeed suspicious.

“Karin is right,” Juugo said. “We have yet to see one of the townspeople and it isn’t that late yet. No shops are open either.”

The wind howled and a very thin slip of paper got snagged under Sasuke’s sandal. Bending down he picked it up. It looked tattered and the color was faded, but Sasuke was fairly sure it had been yellow once and the inscription had been painted red.

“What month is it?” Sasuke said, still holding the paper.

“What?” Suigetsu asked, brows furrowing. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“It’s August,” Karin said in sudden realization.

Juugo nodded. “The month of the ghosts.”

“What? You too?” Suigetsu looked between them back and forth like he thought they were pulling his leg. “You don’t seriously believe in that bullshit, do you?”

Juugo shook his head and Karin said, “Not really, but…” She chanced a nervous glance at Sasuke who was strangely silent.

“I do,” he said, staring at the spirit money in his hand and letting the wind blow it from his palm.

Suigetsu laughed. “What? The big, bad Uchiha is scared of ghosts?”

Sasuke’s flat expression did not change and he did not bother to respond, but Karin rose to his defense.

“How dare you talk to Sasuke that way!”

“C’mon, look at him being a scaredy-cat. Don’t you think that’s hilarious?” Suigetsu looked like he might guffaw, doubled over as he was. Then the smile faded from his lips and he seemed to grow paler. “Karin, b-behind you…”

Immediately freezing up, Karin turned her head slowly, feeling goosebumps rise all along her flesh. There was no one behind her, however, and she was about to give Suigetsu a piece of her mind when he jumped in front of her and said, “Boo!”

She screamed and Suigetsu cradled his stomach laughing. “You should have seen your face!” He slapped his thigh and there were tears in the corners of his eyes.

“You are such a dick!” She shoved him, perhaps a little harder than was necessary; there was an ominous crunching noise as Suigetsu staggered and stepped on something to maintain his balance.

Looking down they saw it was a bowl filled with days-old rice and steamed vegetables, now upturned and spilling grains onto the dirty ground. Behind it, there was an altar with incense and burning paper money, houses and servants, illuminating everything in an eerie, orange glow.

“You two, apologize right now.” Sasuke sounded serious.

Karin clapped her hands, bent her knees and bowed before the altar. She was trembling. “S-Sorry. It was an accident, I swear. We meant no disrespect by it. Please forgive us.”

Sasuke’s dark, fathomless eyes found Suigetsu. “You too.”

Suigetsu snorted. “This is ridiculous,” he said. “Yeah, yeah, sorry.” It was clear he didn’t mean it, but Sasuke let it pass.

Crouching down to the floor, Sasuke gathered the spilled grains and vegetables and put them back into the bowl, uncaring for the dirt or foulness. The chopsticks he stuck back inside in their original vertical position. His palms found each other and he added his own apologies. Juugo mimicked him. And then they were on their way again.

They saw several more altars lining the walls and lanterns adorning the front of houses and shops. Sasuke felt nostalgic as he saw them, reminded of the ones he used to light in the Uchiha District, painted with the Uchiha crest, the fans that stoked the flames. He used to light a bonfire in their honor, year after year after the massacre, but he hadn’t been able to since leaving the Leaf. He used to wipe away the dirt and dust from their altars and graves and was sure they must have fallen into disrepair since.

He vowed to himself that he would buy some incense and spirit paper to alleviate their souls. He was certain they would understand. After all, he was on a mission.

They reached an inn. The feeling of being watched was difficult to shake off, but to Sasuke it was familiar and almost a comfort. Karin did not seem to fare quite as well as she kept casting glances around her and practically clung to Sasuke’s arm.

“Hello youngsters.” An old man emerged from the shadows behind the reception desk. Orange light caressed his weathered features. “How can I help you?”

Sasuke returned the greeting and even dipped his head slightly in a bow. “We would like to rest the night. Two rooms, please. It does not do to stroll around at this hour.”

The old man nodded in approval. “Yes. I feel like they are particularly hungry this year, aren’t they? I pity them for their restlessness. May they find peace and be reborn into a happier life.”

With his oil lamp he led them to their rooms. The stairs creaked as they stepped on them, unnaturally loud in the silence. Traditional shoji doors greeted them, but thankfully there were beds inside the rooms. “If you need anything, I’m in the room downstairs next to the reception. Good night.”

“Good night,” Sasuke said and that was the first night they spent in the village.

*

Sasuke and Juugo occupied the room across from Karin and Suigetsu’s. Sasuke had slept extraordinarily well, but it seemed the sentiment was not shared. There were heavy bags underneath Karin’s eyes and she was complaining to Suigetsu about his loud snoring.

“Where are you going?” she asked as she saw Sasuke leaving, Juugo his close shadow. Sasuke tilted his head, did not turn around.

“To greet my family.” Then he offered, “Do you want to come with me?”

Karin hesitated for a moment.

“No,” she said.

As Sasuke left, he heard Suigetsu calling him a ‘creep’ and Karin raging at Suigetsu for it.

Sasuke hadn’t really expected otherwise.

*

The smell of incense rose in the air, heavy and heady. Paper burned, edges lighting up brightly as the flames consumed them. _We were born from fire and we must return to fire_ , his mother had always told him. Such was the Uchiha way.

Every single one of them had been cremated. Sasuke was sure it was as much tradition as it was pragmatism in order to keep their bodies and secrets safe. He had memorized every single name, all 236 of them, relatives he had known during their lifetime and relatives he only got to know after their death. He had memorized the list, the archives, the elaborate family tree without the use of his Sharingan, murmuring their names until he remembered their taste and shape, and he called out to each of them now, women, men and children who had been even younger than him when they died.

“I hope you eat well,” he said. Orochimaru used to ridicule him for it, but it had never stopped Sasuke from honoring his relatives every year and Orochimaru let him, though the sage had always seemed uncomfortable when Sasuke did and never lingered for long to watch—likely due to his fear of death; Sasuke had always thought his attempts at achieving immortality to be pointless… and now, Orochimaru was as good as dead anyway. He could feel a stirring in the dark corners of his mind at that; even now the man was cringing away from the concept of death. “I hope you live comfortably on the other side and have no need for anything.”

Embers sparked, white smoke curled like mist and he bowed low, his ears catching something like children’s laughter in the distance. A breeze whispered through the temple and the candles flickered restlessly. Wind gently ruffled his hair like ghostly fingers, cool silk caressed his cheek in a dark waterfall and the familiar, powdery scent of his mother’s perfume tickled his nose. But when he raised his head, she was gone.

He lingered for another moment, as though waiting for her to show up again.

When she didn’t, he lit another incense stick and stood up. Around him there were other visitors and monks in their orange robes.

“Do you miss them?” Juugo asked as Sasuke crossed the threshold of the temple.

Sasuke did not answer; he did not need to.

 _Soon_ , he promised them, the scent of incense clinging to his hair and clothes, fists clenching at his sides and his face like thunder. _Soon_.

And then, finally, they would be able to rest in peace.

As they left, a woman with pale skin and long, dark hair watched them walk away, standing where they had been just moments ago. Her face was not visible, but there was something unbearably sad around her bearing.

*

They met up much later in the day. Sasuke had given Suigetsu the go ahead for going exploring and having some fun. Suigetsu had whooped and done a little happy dance and likely not heard a word of Sasuke’s warnings about the ghost month. He could only hope Karin kept Suigetsu in check.

“—and then there were these tables full of food: duck, pork, beef, fish, with glass noodles, soup and rice and tons of side dishes. It was anything you wanted, in any form you could imagine, whether it be steamed or stewed or fried! It looked like a banquet, but no one was eating!”

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t eat anything, did you?”

“Nah,” Suigetsu said after too long a moment passed. “Karin wouldn’t let me.” He gave her the stink-eye.

“Good,” Sasuke said. Karin seemed to preen at his approval. “You know that food isn’t meant for the living, don’t you? The dead should be allowed to eat their fill first.”

“Yeah, yeah.” But, “A waste of perfectly good and still-hot food,” he said underneath his breath, shrugging before launching into his next tale of how he’d scared Karin and how she was so jumpy that he hardly needed to do anything. Karin denied everything profusely and as the sun set over the horizon she said she’d heard tell of a stage being set up in the village center and tugged them along with her.

Several pairs of eyes followed them, though that wasn’t uncommon as they traveled often. They seemed to lose the villagers’ attention just as quickly however, as though they were used to seeing a lot of new faces this time of the year or just afraid of being caught staring by the wrong sort.

Sasuke knew the rule; if you didn’t bother them, they wouldn’t bother you.

Rows of chairs were placed before the removable stage, not as many of them occupied as one might have thought for such an event.

“Ah!” Suigetsu said triumphantly. “Look! The front row is empty—seems like it’s our lucky day!”

“Wait,” Sasuke said. “The front row is reserved for the dead. You shouldn’t sit down or—“

“Or what?” Suigetsu scoffed and ran an agitated hand through his silver hair. “Ahh, seriously. I’m tired of this bullshit. I’m not going sit in the back row just because of a few villagers’ superstitions.”

And with those words he promptly plopped down squat on the first row seats, legs splayed and arms hugging the back of the neighboring chairs. He sighed in pleasure. “Now this is the life. All this space to myself. If you losers want to sit in the back, be my guests.”

Sasuke only shook his head and went to take his place with the others in the third row; he wanted some distance to the first row. Karin insisted on sitting next to him, partly out of fear and as another ploy to get closer to him. To Juugo he whispered, “Keep an eye on Suigetsu.”

Juugo stared at him before simply nodding. He did not ask why, though Sasuke knew he wanted to.

As the play began and the Kabuki actors entered the stage, Sasuke found that Suigetsu flashed in and out of sight even though he sat almost right in front of Sasuke. It was as though he wasn’t there at times. The masks on stage shone bone white and the shadows seemed to move strangely. Once, Sasuke thought he saw a young girl with pigtails in a shamisen lean her head on Suigetsu’s shoulder before turning around and smiling at Sasuke. He tried to make out her features more clearly in the poor lighting, but she was gone in the next blink of the eye.

Later at the inn Suigetsu was yawning and popping his neck and Karin was talking excitedly about the Getai and the actors and Juugo seemed even more silent than usual. The innkeeper greeted them, cloaked in the warm orange glow of his oil lamp as usual.

But then his smile faded and he seemed to look at a point behind them. Sasuke turned to look, but there were only the wooden floorboards, the walls and the inky darkness. The hairs on his neck rose.

“Young man,” the innkeeper said, addressing Suigetsu, “Did you do something to anger the hungry ghosts? If you apologize and light some incense, it might not be too late—“

“Damn and here I thought I could leave all that bullshit behind me and go to sleep in peace. This backwater place is a madhouse. At least we are leaving tomorrow.” He threw a careless “Night” over his shoulder and then he was gone, traipsing up the stairs at an easy pace. As he disappeared into the dark, it happened again; his form blurring in and out of sight. Letting his Sharingan subtly bleed into his eyes, Sasuke saw pale, bare feet following closely behind Suigetsu’s steps.

Turning to the kindly old man, Sasuke said, “I apologize on behalf of my friend. He isn’t familiar with this side of the world. Is there anything we can do?”

The old man shook his head ruefully. “I doubt she will let anything alleviate her until she is done with her business. Just keep a close eye on your friend and don’t let him commit any more crimes and he should leave this place alive. But you, I believe, are quite safe from her…” Again the man looked at him as though he could look inside him, _beyond_ him. It made the goosebumps rise on his flesh. “You’ve got quite a few ghosts yourself to carry around with you, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Sasuke said, resisting the urge to swallow, and the old man smiled sadly. “Can you see them?” Sasuke dared to ask after a moment, heart pounding. “Are they… here right now?”

The man spread his gaze, his strange, inhuman eyes drawn inevitably to the dark corners, even stopping next to them and resting for a few unsettling moments on the ceiling. Karin’s nails dug into his arm, but Sasuke hardly cared, fists curled tight, heart beating a tattoo into his breast— and he told himself it did not crush him when the old man shook his head. “No, I’m sorry,” the innkeeper said.

Sasuke nodded, a bare dip of his chin. “It’s fine. Thank you for trying.”

As they entered the hall Karin shivered, rubbing her arms. “It shouldn’t be this cold in summer, right?”

Strangely, Sasuke didn’t feel like it was colder than usual, but he didn’t tell her that. At the door to her shared room with Suigetsu she stopped briefly. “Do you believe what the innkeeper said?”

She looked vulnerable right then and reminded him of Sakura, just a little. Maybe that was the reason why his voice gentled. “Go to sleep. Tomorrow we’ll leave and we need all the rest we can get. Good night.”

“Good night,” Karin said, but Sasuke did not look to see what expression she wore on her face.

Back in their room Juugo asked, his voice barely above a whisper as though afraid someone was listening in to them, “Did you see it, too? Back at the theater?”

Sasuke closed his eyes. “You mean Suigetsu?”

“It was like… he wasn’t there, at times. Just... _gone_.”

The summer heat pressed in around them, and Sasuke slept without covers. Cicadas were singing outside. “They were covering him from sight. I warned him and he didn’t listen.”

There was the sound of uneasy shuffling. “So they really… exist?”

Sasuke resisted the urge to sigh.

“The same goes for you. Tomorrow is a long day. Sleep.”

And sleep they did.

*

Suigetsu was sick the next day, prolonging their stay.

He had gotten down with a bad case of the flu and shifted in and out of consciousness, muttering only nonsense and stubbornly insisting that he didn’t get sick, he never got sick, in the brief instances he was awake. Karin was buried underneath a pile of extra blankets she had gotten from somewhere and refused to be woken up, which meant she was on nursing duty until Sasuke and Juugo came back with medicaments.

“I was hoping we could continue with our journey before the fifteenth of this month,” Sasuke said as they bought some herbs to brew tea and soups with as the village did not seem to be in possession of other forms of medicine.

“…why?” Juugo sounded like he dreaded asking.

“Usually the date coincides with the full moon and that is when spirit activity is highest… just before the gates of the underworld close.”

Juugo’s eyes widened. “But the fifteenth is…”

“In three days,” Sasuke finished for him. “We should only plan to leave after that or we might attract bad luck.”

“What about Suigetsu?”

There was a moment of contemplation. “She should be appeased for now, but if she isn’t… we’ll have to seek the assistance of the priests. And then we continue with our journey.”

After all, they had wasted enough time already and the distance between them and _him_ was only growing. But it couldn’t be helped.

With the paper-wrapped herbs in hand and a large flask of porridge they made their way back to the inn. Sasuke was irritated to find out Suigetsu had been well enough to walk around and leave wet footsteps in their room. He would have to ask him what he was looking for later when he was awake.

Karin was happy to see them. Apparently she had been starving and dug into her small bowl of steaming porridge with gusto, the heat not seeming to bother her. As she did, Sasuke noticed the purple spots on her legs and one was even peeking out from under her shirt sleeve. They weren’t her usual bite marks.

“Where did you get those?” Sasuke asked. It was only then Karin seemed to notice she even had them.

Her brows furrowed in confusion, glasses drooping down her nose. “Honestly… I don’t know, but I’ve always been an easy bruiser. And I haven’t been able to sleep well lately…” But she seemed to lose that train of thought as she poured herself another serving. The smell of fried onions wafted in the air and the rich, warm flavor of pork feet melted on their tongues.

By the time Karin was done, she had almost finished the whole can by herself.

“Leave some for Suigetsu,” Sasuke gently admonished her, but her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment anyway. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her. “Are you still hungry?”

Her face flushed a deeper red to match her hair. “N-no,” she said unconvincingly, trying to gather her dignity around her like the blankets that had all but slipped from her frame.

Sasuke watched her critically for another moment. She squirmed underneath his gaze.

“Juugo,” he said, “you stay here. Karin and I are going out to buy some more food. It seems like porridge isn’t going to do it for Karin.”

To Karin he said, “You should have said if you were still hungry. Hunger is going to make you weak and that isn’t something I value in a kunoichi. Do you understand?”

She smiled tremulously but brilliantly, embarrassment all but forgotten. “Yes, Sasuke!”

When he asked her what she wanted to eat, she happily proclaimed that she wanted to eat steamed pork buns.

*

When Suigetsu awoke in the afternoon, bleary-eyed but apparently just as hungry as Karin, Sasuke posed to him the question he had wanted to ask.

The boy looked at him strangely. “What? No! I wasn’t in your room. I was here the whole time. Why don’t you ask Karin? At least she was awake. Well, more awake than me,” he amended.

But Karin seemed just as clueless. She had seen no one, she said before profusely apologizing for not watching Sasuke’s belongings better. Sasuke told her nothing had been stolen and that she should be on her guard next time, but still. It was something to think about.

Who would be capable of bypassing two A-class nin, one of which was a sensor and a proficient one at that?

Sasuke bought some incense and lit it in both their rooms. This was getting out of control.

*

Sasuke startled awake. Something had woken him up, but he didn’t know what. The room was dark, Juugo was asleep on the other bed and the incense sticks had burned down to stumps. Their door was opened to the hallway and as he looked someone passed by the opening, the gait slow and even.

Noiselessly, Sasuke slipped from the bed, kunai at his side and fingering the talisman he had gotten from the priests earlier that day. He had not wanted to use it as he wanted to prevent an escalation, but if she left him with no other choice…

He peered around the corner of the wall, looking left and right and not leaving out the ceiling. The hall was empty. He didn’t sense any other presence except that of his friends and the other inn guests, but that didn’t have to mean anything.

There was movement behind the shoji doors of Karin and Suigetsu’s room and Sasuke pressed himself carefully against the wall. There was a dark slithering in his mind, but he pushed it back. Why choose now of all times to become intrigued?

Opening the door a crack, he peered inside. Suigetsu was lying on his bed, limbs akimbo and blanket kicked to the floor. Karin’s bed was empty, but there was a rectangle of light on the floor from the bathroom’s open door. Sasuke slipped into the bedroom.

He slowly approached the source of light until he was at the door frame. Putting his hand against the door he pushed it fully open. There was no one inside. A bathtub with the drape pulled to only one side, a toilet and sink with a mirror. His reflection looked back at him hatefully, older and looking more like _him_ with each passing day.

But then he saw someone passing behind him in the mirror and he whipped around in a crouch, kunai in hand with the talisman on it. He hadn’t sensed anyone. But it was only Karin, her bare feet sliding over the floor, still in a way she never was.

She approached the open window, her back turned to him, and the wind blew through her hair. It looked black in the lack of light, like blood underneath the moon.

“Karin?” he asked, though he knew it wasn’t her. The girl turned around and sat on the windowsill, legs kicking like a child’s. She was clad only in her blouse.

There was a tree in front of the window, blocking the silvery light of the moon. Her features whisked in and out of sight with the shifting shadows.

“Sasuke,” she said, eyes horrifyingly familiar. It was his mother looking back at him. “Save me.”

Her form tipped back, but Sasuke was at her side in an instant, fingers on the pressure point at her neck and slapping the talisman on her forehead in a lightning quick motion.

The body sagged in his arms. Sasuke was reassured to note it was Karin again, with heavy bags underneath her eyes and unconscious. Her pulse was a little weak, but otherwise she seemed fine. He carried her back to her bed and proceeded to wake up Suigetsu and Juugo.

A shiver ran down his spine as her face flashed into his mind, her voice.

_Sasuke, save me._

His eyes blazed and his fists clenched.

The ghost had gone too far this time.

*

When Karin woke up, she said she didn’t remember anything happening last night. But she yawned wide and seemed even more tired than usual. They didn’t tell her what happened, but Sasuke gave her the talisman to carry around with her. By her stammering and gushing he could tell she would be wearing it all the time.

He got a talisman for each one of them. Two more days of this and then they would be able to leave. At least Suigetsu seemed to be getting a little better and Karin didn’t get any more bruises.

“She was bitten by the ghost,” he said to the other boys as way of explanation and told them to watch Karin at all times, though Suigetsu wasn’t really well enough for that yet, so he kept them on double watch.

“Do you ever sleepwalk?” he asked Karin.

“No,” she said, absently licking the sauce from her fingers. “But I think I used to as a child. I used to be a creepy kid.” She laughed, but Sasuke didn’t.

That night, they slept without any incidents.

*

Suigetsu was worse the next day. He kept shivering underneath the blankets as he swore up and down this was the first time he got sick, snot flying everywhere as he sneezed and Karin screaming as she tried to dodge it. She seemed to have slept better at least, beaming and making fun of Suigetsu.

She was enthusiastic about going out as well and despite his misgivings Sasuke decided to accompany her.

“Have you been… noticing anything strange lately?” he asked her as they ate some shaved ice (although Karin was eating Sasuke’s portion at the moment, having practically inhaled hers).

She licked the syrup from her spoon and rested it on her lip in thought. “Anything strange? Mmm. At the beginning I had a few strange dreams, but otherwise… I’ve been sleeping like a _baby_. I don’t think I’ve ever slept that well!”

“What sort of dreams?” Across the street a couple of kids were playing, the good weather having likely lured them outside.

“It’s strange,” Karin said after a long pause. The ice was melting to a sludge in her cup. “But I don’t remember much. I only know that I was really, really scared. And it was dark. I knew I had to get away, from _something_ —“

She screamed and jumped away, the sound chilling. Her cup lay upended on the sunlit grass, dripping red half-melted ice. She looked pale. “There was… someone…”

“Who?” Sasuke took a step towards her while keeping an eye out for anyone in the vicinity.

There was a haunted look on her face. “They were licking the ice.” Then she started to shiver uncontrollably. “It’s cold. It’s c-cold.” Her teeth were chattering.

Across the street the kids had stopped playing and were staring, their expressions identic and blank. It was eerily silent. Sasuke took Karin by the elbow. “We should leave,” he said.

They wrapped her in blankets next to a shivering Suigetsu and slept in one room that night. Sasuke planned to take turns with Juugo keeping watch, but he never noticed the candles going out or when his eyes started to close against his will.

*

It was early morning when Sasuke woke up. The heavy fog of sleep was difficult to shake off, unusual as he was a light sleeper even by shinobi standards. He had fallen asleep sitting against the wall and saw that the other boys were still deep in slumber.

But Karin was gone.

He looked beneath the blankets, in the bathroom, in the closet, in the other room, to no avail. He woke up Suigetsu and Juugo, telling them he would go out to search for Karin and that Juugo should stay in order to take care of their sick teammate.

Juugo looked like he wanted to protest. “But what about you? Isn’t it dangerous out there?”

It was the fifteenth of the seventh month after all, the night of the full moon.

Sasuke only shook his head. “Don’t worry about me. They won’t touch me. But I need to find Karin before the sun sets. Wait for me here. Close the windows. Don’t let anyone in, even if they sound or look like Karin or me.”

“How… do I know it’s you?”

“You will,” Sasuke simply said before lowering his head and whispering into Juugo’s ear.

“Understood?” Sasuke asked, standing up, and Juugo nodded tightly.

As he left, the innkeeper wished him good luck before disappearing in his own chambers. Outside, the streets were empty, altars burned and lanterns swayed back and forth. Figures flickered in and out of sight. Sasuke asked the few villagers that were still out and about, but no one seemed to have seen the red-haired girl.

The sun rose, reaching its zenith then sinking incrementally. Time slipped between his fingers like sand and Sasuke was well aware the ghosts must have been hiding Karin away from sight along with her chakra signature. Sasuke was about to seek out the temple and the assistance of the priests when he saw an elderly woman crouched on the floor and burning spirit paper.

“Excuse me,” he said and her eyes traveled up his form in a slow, roving slide. “But have you seen a red-haired girl?”

The woman nodded and Sasuke asked, “Where did she go?”

Without speaking the woman’s right arm rose and she pointed into a dark alleyway not far from them, her gaze unwavering and unsettling in their intensity.

“Thank you,” Sasuke said and went into the direction. When he turned around there was only the altar and burning paper and the woman was gone. Shaking his head, he continued his path to the mouth of the alley. There was a foul smell and the sounds of slurping and crunching entered his ears.

 _Mother, father_ , Sasuke beseeched, pressing his side against the wall, _give me strength_.

The sun was already beginning to set and when he peeked around the corner he only saw a mop of unruly hair and dirty hands that shone with a greasy film, shoving fistfuls of rice and meat and steamed vegetables hazardly into a mouth, uncaring of hygiene or propriety. There were dark smears all around the lips and a half-bitten rat lay abandoned on the ground.

Karin was eating the food sacrificed to the ghosts in order to appease them. She snarled when she saw him, inhuman, face twisted into something hungry and grotesque, but Sasuke was faster and shoved half a dozen talismans into her open mouth.

She seemed to choke and convulse for a moment before sagging in his grip and he removed his fingers from between her slack teeth, swiftly taking her back to the inn and not bothering to look around him as he did so. The streets were starting to fill up and he did not care to find out what would happen if they stayed any longer.

In the back of his mind there was laughter, as though satisfied that his treacherous pupils would meet such misfortune here. He ignored it in favor of transporting Karin back safely, using the Body Flicker. There was more laughter all around him, differing in cadence, high and low, delicate and bold, male and female, childlike, mixing together, forming a jeering mass.

He gritted his teeth, pushed on.

The inn was empty when he returned and the door to their room was open. Juugo and Suigetsu were nowhere in sight. In his arms Karin woke up, eyes fluttering before grimacing. She turned to the side and spat out the foul swirl in her mouth. “Sasuke, what—“

He motioned for her to stay silent. There it was again. A giggle. It sounded closer. He looked around him, but he hadn’t really expected to see anyone.

A hand grabbed the collar of his shirt. It was Karin. She looked frantic. “W-what is happening, Sasuke, _Sasuke_ —“

He tried to hold her, but his arms closed around empty air as she dissipated into smoke. Her high-pitched, bloodcurdling scream echoed in his ears, leaving them ringing. He stood up slowly, fists clenched.

Underneath his bangs, his eyes blazed Sharingan red.

“Where are they?” His tone was low and deadly.

There was another giggle. “Looking for her?” It sounded like Karin, using her vocal chords, but it wasn’t her standing at the end of the hall. He started towards her, the look in his eyes promising retribution, but then _it_ was back at the windowsill, kicking Karin’s legs back and forth reminiscent of the other night.

“What do you want?” he asked, his eyes bleeding demon red. He saw it clearly, like a mask overlaying Karin’s slack, mind-controlled features. It was the pig-tailed girl in the shamisen.

The ghost made to look thoughtful, placing a finger on Karin’s lips. “Hmm, I think I want you to kiss me!” Sasuke didn’t so much as twitch and the ghost pouted. “Don’t you like me? I’m so pretty.” It gestured to Karin’s body as though it were its own.

Then it smiled, slow and ugly. “But on second thought… I think I only want,” its eyes flashed with a sick light, “ _death_.”

Sasuke knew what she intended to do before she said it, surging forward but finding his limbs strangely heavy, as though invisible hands held him in place. Mocking laughter echoed all around him, deafening.

“Save me,” Karin’s toneless voice said, “Save me.”

Then she leaned back. Before she fell, he thought he saw the real Karin, raw fear in her eyes, his name on her lips— _Sasuke_ —

“No,” he said, trembling in helpless rage. The laughter grew louder, melding with words that had haunted him every day and every night—

_Still so weak, Sasuke?_

_Foolish little brother._

_You can’t protect anyone._

A hand grabbed the windowsill, delicate and feminine. Sasuke did not dare to hope, but the body hauling itself up was Karin’s. “Whew,” Karin’s voice said, though it was not her. “That was close. I think I broke a nail. Oh well.”

The movements were strangely agile with a raw grace, and the demeanor was oddly familiar as the body landed lightly on its feet, cricking its neck, the lazily slouched back bringing to mind an adolescent boy or young adult man. This one was definitely a shinobi.

 _Who are you?_ the pig-tailed ghost asked, though Sasuke couldn’t see her.

“Oh, me?” The body rested against the wall, thumbs hooked into the top of Karin’s shorts, something angular about the shoulders. “Why…” teeth glinted bone-white in the moonlight as lips stretched a little wider than Karin’s face was used to, “I’m the one who’s going to _kill_ you.”

There was an angry noise and then a violent gust of wind nearly toppled Sasuke from his feet. As he caught himself, he found that he could move again.

Karin’s body was jerking like she was having a seizure, the two ghosts obviously battling for dominance, spilling unintelligible things and angry insults from Karin’s lips. It became quickly apparent the newer ghost had the upper hand and he (she?) managed to hold Karin’s body still.

“Sasuke,” the ghost said. “Hey, I know I’m not looking my usual handsome self, but you gotta give me a hand here. I can’t hold her for long and I need you to help me.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Aww that hurts, but no, seriously, you gotta listen to me if you want to save your friend.”

“How?”

The ghost actually _winked_. “What’s the rite of initiation for an Uchiha?”

“No,” Sasuke said immediately. “I’m not going to fall for your trick and hurt her.”

“Shit, Sasuke. I can’t hold her off any longer. I promise I’m not lying to you.”

There was just something about the tone and cadence that didn’t fail to annoy Sasuke, hauntingly familiar…

Sasuke closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and—exhaled _fire_.

There was an inhuman screech as the room lit up in shades of red, orange and blinding white. The heat was singeing, but Sasuke had grown used to it a long time ago. With dread he looked at Karin’s body, but found that she was mostly uninjured, a little charred here and there but well.

Her eyes opened and she smiled toothily. “Hey baby cous’.”

Sasuke paused and it sounded like it wasn’t really his voice speaking when he said, no, _whispered_ , “Is it really you… Shisui?”

“Got it right in one,” Shisui said, patting Sasuke’s head proudly. Sasuke let his eyes bleed crimson and his breath hitched. Overlaying Karin’s own features was Shisui with his unruly curls, laughing eyes and wide, grinning mouth. “Now, now, don’t go crying on me. The rest of our family would lynch me if they caught wind of the fact that I was mean to our baby boy.”

That caught Sasuke’s attention. “How… how are they?”

Shisui smiled sadly. “Sorry, Sasuke, but I never actually saw any of them after dying, so I’m just as clueless as you are.” He cupped Sasuke’s face, his thumb brushing over Sasuke’s cheek underneath his eye, but they were dry in contrast to Shisui’s earlier words. “You shouldn’t use those too often. You’ll run out of chakra faster and we don’t want that, do we?” he teased, but Sasuke remained tense.

“Hey, hey,” he said, smiling faintly, lopsidedly, “I’m not going anywhere, don’t you know?”

“But… today is the fifteenth. You’ll have to leave soon,” Sasuke said. His voice was toneless.

“As if I’d abandon my baby cous’ so soon after meeting him. I’d be a very bad cousin then, wouldn’t I?”

Sasuke breathed in Shisui’s scent—salt and sun, silt and earth torn away by the torrent of an overflowing river. “How?” he asked, sounding more desperate than he could remember and not caring.

“Your friend’s an Uzumaki, you know?”

Sasuke’s mind raced. “Does that mean—“

It was as though Shisui read his mind.

“Nah, I doubt anyone would want to cozy up to the old demon fox. But yeah, I know where they come from. The Uzumakis’ energy kinda makes them attractive hosts and when I say attractive I mean moths to the flame sort of attractive.” Shisui tapped his own—no, _Karin’s_ —cheek and winked. “You should keep an eye out for your little friend. Who knows what would have happened, if I hadn’t been there? I mean, I’m sure she could have fought off the ghost eventually—this Karin girl’s fierce, a right little spitfire, ya know—but the ghost was faster.”

At the reminder of Karin, Sasuke relaxed fractionally. “Thank you for that,” he said. “What about my other teammates?”

“Oh, they are unconscious but otherwise fine. They are just in the other room—the ghost girl hid them with her powers, so you didn’t sense or see them.”

“You…” Sasuke’s grip tightened. “What do you mean by the Uzumaki energy? Are you… really going to stay?”

Shisui laid a hand on Sasuke’s own tense one. “You know how the gate between the world of the living and the dead is opened during Obon, don’t you?” At Sasuke’s nod Shisui continued, “Means we need less energy to touch the world of the living. Usually, it’s a huge effort. We need a lot of energy to even manifest and constant sustenance. Some ghosts accumulate lots of energy over the years, which makes them more powerful than others. It’s actually a little like chakra, in a way.”

“What happens if you lose too much energy?”

“I don’t know. I guess you sort of disappear.” Shisui shrugged like it was no big deal. “Eh, she’s waking up. We can talk about this later.”

“Shisui, wai—“

Karin blinked wide red eyes up at Sasuke. Her eyebrows scrunched together. “Sasuke? Where…” She tried to sit up, but Sasuke refused to budge. “Sasuke?”

Sasuke took a deep breath and told himself to get his act together. “Do you remember what happened?”

“I… ate some shaved ice and got sick?” Sasuke had suspected that was as far as Karin would be able to recall, given that she had been possessed and pretty much unconscious during that time. “Sasuke, is there something wrong?”

“No.” It was better if she didn’t know. “Let’s go check on Juugo and Suigetsu. They’ve been sleeping all day.”

As Karin remarked about those ‘lazy asses’ and finally noticed the slightly charred smell of her hair and clothes, Sasuke ignored the way his hands shook. He tried not to think of the way Shisui hadn’t answered his question of whether he would stay or not—

But they would talk later, Shisui had said, and Sasuke would cling to that, for all it was worth.

*

Juugo and Suigetsu turned out to have absolutely no recollection of how they got to Karin and Suigetsu’s shared room or when they had ‘fallen asleep’. Sasuke pulled them aside and all three of them agreed not to tell Karin of what had transpired, and among the four of them it was unanimously decided that they would check out the next day.

Sasuke told himself he wasn’t disappointed (crushed) when Shisui didn’t show up again.

“Hello,” the old man greeted them warmly. Sasuke returned the greeting, though his was more subdued. “I hope you slept well last night.”

“Barely got a wink in,” Suigetsu ground out. Juugo wasn’t saying anything, but he seemed to be sleeping on his feet. Karin behind him didn’t seem to be any better, bleary-eyed and staring at nothing.

Sasuke himself had not dared to close his eyes for even one second, staying up and waiting for Shisui, too wired-up and nervous to even think of going back to sleep. He wiped his sweaty hands on his thighs and inclined his head. “Thank you for taking such good care of us. It couldn’t have been easy, considering the time of year.”

“It was no trouble, young man. But I fear I was not of as much help as I wish I could have been.” Those kind brown eyes roved over his face, though without focusing. Sasuke had noticed the man was almost completely blind from the first moment, although sometimes it was hard to tell with the way his pupils tended to skitter or linger too long on some spots. Seeming to come to a realization, the man nodded to himself. “At least it seems you are not alone anymore. I’m glad.”

Sasuke’s pulse jumped. His hand on the reception curled into a fist. “What do you mean?”

But the old man only smiled. “May the rest of your journey be fortuitous. It won’t be easy, you will discover that there are many new and frightening things in this world that you could barely even imagine, and in the end what you seek may not be what you find, but I have faith in you. You burn too brightly for the darkness to consume you entirely.”

Sasuke’s mind raced and there were so many questions he wanted to ask, but he bit down on them. Instead he wished for the man’s long age and a flourishing business, not knowing it would be the last time he would ever see the innkeeper.

In the village they bought supplies for the journey. Suigetsu complained about that ‘shitty, haunted’ inn to a salesperson, whose brows drew together. “Which inn?”

“Well, the huge and old-looking one! With the creepy old man,” Suigetsu said, like the other one was being obtuse on purpose.

The salesperson only continued to look puzzled. “We don’t have an inn like that.”

“Of course you do! I was there with my friends for a whole long-ass friggin’ week. You trying to fuck with me?” Sasuke put a hand on Suigetsu’s chest, giving him a warning look.

Oblivious, the salesperson continued. “The only inn that would fit your description burned down thirty-seven years ago. No one knows what caused the fire, but it was assumed that it was an accident. Maybe an unattended oil lamp caught the drapes. The fire came in the middle of the night when the patrons were sleeping. But it spread too fast and no one escaped. The owner burned down along with the inn. From what my parents told me, he was a kind old man, but almost blind and he never had a wife or children.”

A chill ran down Sasuke’s spine, taking his breath away. Suigetsu looked faintly green around the gills and the others didn’t seem to fare any better. Exchanging identical glances, they quickly made their purchase. But when they went back to check on the inn, it wasn’t there. In its place was a small shop. It looked faintly new and modern and when they entered a young woman greeted them cheerfully.

“Hello, you must be the group the boy was talking about earlier. He already paid in advance, so you can just choose. You are Sasuke, aren’t you? He told me the onigiri with okaka filling were your favorite.”

Sasuke’s heart was in his throat. “A boy? What did he look like?”

“He was around your age, but it’s strange. Somehow I can't remember his face even though he was here just a moment ago. I only know that he had the most striking eyes…” She shook her head and smiled. “Oh well. What would the rest of you like?”

The others gave their orders, ranging from karaage to umeboshi to kombu and dug in like starving children the moment their food was served. Looking at them, you wouldn’t be able to tell that they had been in a life-and-death battle with a ghost less than a day ago.

Sasuke took his time unwrapping his own onigiri. He took his first bite, savoring the rich, salty taste, thinking of his mother’s wet hands as they formed the rice, her smile when she spotted him standing in the doorway and told him to join her; his father’s soft eyes, later, when he came to lean against the doorframe and watch them. He thought of the sun hanging in the corner of a too-wide mouth, its owner oblivious to the grain of rice stuck to his upper lip, and he didn’t know why the sight irritated him so much, except it made him feel all twisted up and hot inside and it was all _his_ fault, him with his stupid face, with his stupid laugh, with eyes that only ever seemed to look at his brother but never him.

Sasuke opened his eyes, his gaze meeting the startled shop owner’s. “It’s delicious.”

“Thank you.” She beamed, recovering remarkably quickly from being caught staring. “You seem like really nice people. I just moved here recently and it hasn’t been long since I opened my shop. Apparently an inn burned down in the same spot a few decades ago, but new beginnings and all, right?”

“Yeah,” Sasuke said, taking another bite.

With the taste of smoked tuna and bittersweet memories on his tongue, he smiled.


End file.
